By Rhea-Frances Tetley
Historian
The 1987 calendar from the Crest Forest Historical Society is identical in dates to this year’s 2026 calendar, so it’s perfect to use this year. These articles were inspired because the society is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, as it has expanded and grown into the Rim of the World Historical Society and Mountain History Museum, which has been sharing the area’s history with us over the past 40 years. The previous three weeks looked at the historic photos and the businesses of 1987 which are still operating today.
September: Fishing on Lake Gregory.
The September calendar photo was of Lake Gregory, showing fishermen in rowboats on the fishing side of the lake, with the photo taken from the shore near the dam. “Fishing has always been great at Lake Gregory, especially in the areas known as ‘Fish Cove’ and across the lake at ‘Windy Point.’ The lake is regularly stocked for fishing with trout and catfish. The lake also features crappie, bass, carp and bullhead catfish with occasional blue gill, sunfish, bullfrog or Sacramento Perch,” said the calendar caption. The lake has always been peaceful, not encouraging loud motors and fast boats. Even in 2026, the sailboat regattas from the Lake Gregory Yacht Club feature only remote-controlled sailboats.
The Lake Gregory Company and the county have increased the numbers of fish plantings per year since Lake Gregory is now considered one of the premier public fishing lakes in Southern California.
The long-gone “Crawford’s Market was on the corner of Seely Flat Road (now Highway 138) and the upside of Brookside in Valley of Enchantment. It burned in 1947,” was the October photo. The market was a complete grocery and meat market, with magazines, newspapers, plus Coca Cola and beer. Shown in the late 1930s photo are “the grandmother of Katie Riley (1987 owner of Sy’s Sandwich Shop in V.O.E.), market owners Mr. and Mrs. Crawford and Rose Allen the (future) Postmaster of Crestline.” The future Johnny’s Market when built in V.O.E., replaced this burned market.
October: Crawfords Market in Valley of Enchantment, 1930s.
The advertisement was for Mountain Magic Motors which had opened in 1986. The car lot is still in the same location on Lake Drive and continues to sell previously
owned cars and trucks. Now in business for 40 years, it has the same owner and phone number but, of course, now with a (909) area code.
The November calendar photo had the caption, “Cliff Herington’s Trading Post, formerly known as McDonalds, was located at the corner of Lake and Crest Forest Drive where the scorched cement block building of Cliff’s Sportswear now stands” (in 1987). In this 1948 photo, the sturdy wooden structure, which initially was built as the cement warehouse for the Arrowhead Reservoir Company (ARC) around 1900 is shown. The ARC built and owned the toll road which arrived at this warehouse building until 1905, when the county purchased the road and opened it to the public, despite ARC protests. ARC’s warehouse, was abandoned after 1915 and was purchased and added onto by Postmaster Samuel Dillin (de-lynn). The building “displays signs for the Crestline Post Office, a general store, laundry, library, ice house, and dance hall. It served as a town meeting hall until it burned in 1961. Ozzie Nelsen’s Band often played there, and at Murphy’s Dance Hall, which was located behind Herington’s Sportswear in a row of stores that burned” in April 1986.
November: Cliff Herington’s Trading Post in 1948, which burned in 1961, rebuilt as cement block building.
It was fortunate that Cliff Herington Sr. had rebuilt this store out of cement blocks back in the 1960s when this picture building burned, or he may have lost his building again as it was very scorched during the 1986 fire. Those 1986 burned buildings are now rebuilt as the Rim of the World Sports Bar, owned by Cliff Herington III, after the Rim of the World Bar across the street, at that corner, burned in 2015, in another flaming spectacular fire destroying the last of Crestline’s classic 1920s log buildings.
Goodwin’s Market, the several-generation, family-owned “Market of Quality” opened in 1946 in a different location in town on Lake Drive. It advertised in the 1987 calendar they were operating in their then newish store (opened in 1984) at the corner of Lake Gregory Drive and Lake Drive. Two years ago, during 2023’s Snowmeggedon, the roof to that grocery store, directly across from Lake Gregory, collapsed directly down into the center of their walls. It has since been reconstructed better than ever, within the same walls. Goodwin’s Market, owned and operated by the same family, also still has the same phone number (although changed from 714 to 909 area code).
December: The entry archway to Cedarpines Park in the 1930s.
The December snow photo was of the 1930s archway leading to the Mountain Forest Wonderland of Cedarpines Park. “The arch was constructed of timbers with hundreds of deer antlers woven though one portion of the structure. The archway was located on Crest Forest Drive in the vicinity of a house called ‘Upsohi,’” (aka Up So High). Many cabins had cute names given to them in the 1920s.
The final ad was for from Tom Powell and Bonnie Riviera (Powell) who had just been elected honorary co-mayors of Crestline for 1986-87. They had fulfilled their campaign promise to start the Crest Forest Historical Society which created the 1987 calendar the subject of this article, leading to the Rim of the World Historical Society which will be celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, with Tom Powell planning to attend.
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